Report – PC, Wii and Battlefield 3 Contributed to Weak Modern Warfare 3 Sales

Modern Warfare 3 sold in the month of March less than half of Black Ops’ sales in the same month last year according to a recent report. This puts Modern Warfare 3’s lifetime sales at a 4.2% disadvantage compared to Black Ops’ sales up to March last year (from November 2010 to March 2011). However, those numbers didn’t paint the complete picture.

Financial services firm Cowen and Company has cited “significantly reduced sales in the PC, Wii, and handheld versions” of Modern Warfare 3 as the reason behind what they believe a 4.6% decline in sales year-over-year, as reported by Gamasutra. In fact the firm estimates that the sales of Modern Warfare 3 on Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms are marginally up compared to Treyarch’s Black Ops year-over-year. It’s worth noting that Elite is not available to PC players, but Beachhead Studios is still working on it.

Cowen’s Vice President also noted that Modern Warfare 3 sales faced “a fairly stiff challenge” by Battlefield 3. He added that EA will widen the gap between its’ holiday shooter, Medal of Honor Warfighter, and the next Call of Duty. This, most likely, will not be the case as Warfighter will be released on October 23rd, and what rumored to be Black Ops 2 is expected to release some time in the first two weeks of November as it’s been the case with previous Call of Duty titles. Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3 had a 14 day gap in between them, so history will likely repeat itself with the next two blockbusters.

Regarding the next Call of Duty, Cowen and Company has “slightly trimmed” the firm’s sales estimate for the title due to Modern Warfare 3’s latest figures. However, the firm is still confident of the ninth installment in the Call of Duty series to probably succeed. Earlier this year, Activision promised that the next Call of Duty “will bring meaningful innovation to the franchise.”

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